


your fingers have thorns, don't they?

by pandoracorn



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, V3 spoilers, fluff w/o plot, maybe ooc and also not proofread sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 23:13:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12543412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandoracorn/pseuds/pandoracorn
Summary: but like the stem of a rose, i want to slide them between mine anyways//Chabashira and Toujou have a conversation by the pool.





	your fingers have thorns, don't they?

**Author's Note:**

> hm.... Hm...
> 
> am gay. lov my lesbians
> 
> it#s 3am fuck you i'm so fucking tired the only reasoon i even thought about writing this i sbc the v3 tag is... kinda cursed and y'all need gays
> 
> toujou is a lesbian
> 
> i'm not durnk i'm only 2

The net dragged through the water smoothly, like a swan to a lake, spreading its wings and leaving behind a graceful trail of ripples in the water with her feathers. It glided with fluidity, with precision, picking up the fake, plastic leaves from the surface with an accuracy that was almost unheard of from anyone normal… though of course, being a so-called ‘Ultimate’ student trapped in a gifted school of murder wasn’t what one would typically call normally. 

The time was after 10 now, and yet, the maid found herself tossing and turning in her bed, unable to sleep, thoughts plagued with the deaths of two people she barely knew… yet the sound of mellow laughter and a beautiful piano symphony still echoed in her ears, ringing from one side of her head to the other, weighing heavily on her conscience. Could she have done more to stop this? Of course, whether the answer was yes or no, there was no denying the unshakable guilt, and she couldn’t sleep with that weighing so heavily on her. Toujou sighed softly as she pulled the net out of the water, shaking her wrists with the green clumps of plastic between her fingers to pry them off, before tossing them by the poolside without much care. It was late, she was tired, and yet she couldn’t sleep, and she just needed something - anything - to take her mind off of the pit in her stomach.

Work was better than aimless reflection of things that couldn’t be solved anymore, after all.

 

There was a quiet squeak behind her, and the maid found herself freezing as the net was not up to its neck in the water one more, gulping down an apology and preparing an excuse for why she was awake. Was it Saihara? Possibly. The bags under that boy's eyes worried her to no end, and considering his reaction to the execution, she doubted he was sleeping much better than she was-

“Toujou-san?”

...That was a voice she was not expecting to hear. Toujou turned around, watching the girl approach, her hair down as she rubbed her eyes and slowly made her way over, wincing - ever so slightly, but noticeably - as she took a step onto the cold poolside in bare feet, pulling down the oversized shirt she was wearing as a nightgown. Toujou looked her up and down for a moment, losing her composure for a split second as she reminded herself of how the aikido master normally looked before returning the confused call of her name with a deadpan one of her own. “...Chabashira-san.”

“Tenko would have thought you would be asleep by now, but she was wrong, I guess.” Her laughter following this poorly executed joke was shallow, her voice still laced with tiredness as her face fell grave. “...Nightmares?”

“More like an inability to sleep. Nightmares?”

Tenko nodded, rubbing her arm as she looked at the pool located behind the maid. “...The menaces who locked us here think that this is equivalent to the price of two lives?”

The maid followed the gaze to the pool, watching the gentle waves illuminated by the underwater lights for a moment. “I… can’t say that I agree, but yes, it appears so.”

“...” There was silence for a moment, and when Toujou looked back, she noticed Tenko’s hands balled up into fists, digging her nails into her palms with a silent but deadly ferocity that would be enough to make her bleed, if it had not been for the lack of nails at the end of her fingertips to cut her with.

“...Chabashira-san, I…” She tried to offer something of comfort, anything to cease the shaking of the other girl in front of her, but found the words escaping her mouth faster than she could think, leaving her looking like a fool. Instead, she found herself moving one hand off of the net she held, and on top of the shaking fist she was so fixated on, hoping that this action was better than words she couldn’t offer.

All that was offered in reply was a glace up, and a glance back down again, and a sigh as her anger was released into the cold night air, and finally, her wrist turning to interlock with the maid’s before she could pull away. “Toujou-san, I must confess… I don’t like this. I don’t like feeling so powerless, especially against forces I cannot see. For the first time in a long time… Tenko is afraid of what is to come.”

“I can relate, in some regard. All we can do is hope-”

“For rescue? Some semblance of rescue from the outside?” Tenko scoffed quietly, before looking down at their hands, still joined together, her grip tightening as she felt the fabric of Toujou’s gloves against her palms. Her lips pressed together for a moment in thought, before she opened her mouth to ask, “...Are you ashamed of your hands, Toujou-san?”

“...Pardon?” The question came out of nowhere, right after a barrage of emotional confessions.

“Ah- sorry, that must sound odd! Tenko was just… curious, is all.” Tenko took her thumb and ran it against the back of the hand held in her own, the tip of it catching on the ring on the back of the glove. “You keep almost everything hidden, like your hands and your emotions… Tenko wonders how much of you she really knows, sometimes.”

There’s only so much you need to know, Toujou couldn’t help but think, but she held her tongue. With a humble sigh, the maid shook her head. “...In due time, I suppose. We were just shown that no one is safe, and I wouldn’t wish to cause unnecessary heartbreak among my peers.”

Tenko giggled softly, “...You really do sound like a mother… as much as I regret it, I have to agree with that menace, Ouma-san.”

“I-I’m not a mother to any of my classmates-” She recoiled away on impulse, pulling her hand out of Tenko’s grip in a flustered hurry, all while forgetting how close she was to the edge of the pool -and additionally, what had led her here in the first place - until she felt her footing slip on the pool’s edge and the air as she fell backwards-

 

-and then the air as she was flung forwards, feeling a strong grip on her hand once more, slamming onto the poolside a few seconds after.

 

Her eyes closed as she felt a pain in her tailbone, though thankfully, she was not soaked to the bone and humiliated in front of her classmate… Toujou soon registered her hand being held once more. Her head spun around to meet the recipient, as Tenko offered a smile through shaky breath.

"Though she's tired... Tenko once again shows the power of Neo-Aikido!" Her free hand offered a peace sign, before she mellowed again, taking a moment to catch her breath before she pulled off Toujou's glove, and quickly encase their hands once more. From there, she pulled the maid back to her feet, and smiled up at her. "Toujou-san, you have very nice hands... ah, but let's go sleep, OK?"

Toujou felt her throat tighten as her face light up as she realized the exposure of her own hand, the night air cold against it, and the closeness of the young girl looking so cheerful yet tired. ...If someone who risked their life to stop the events of this game when she herself did nothing could still smile, then what was her excuse? The maid forced a small smile upon her face, her face feeling warm in the midnight chill. "...Very well. May I escort you to your room, Chabashira-san?"

"Oh... oh!" Tenko looked around as if some 'menace' as she called them was watching, her free hand softly flapping before she calmed down and replied with a cheery, "Sure!"

 

Hand in hand, the two walked back to their room - and though their minds were not eased from the death, blood and tragedy, there was at least some semblance of comfort found in the poolside that evening.


End file.
